King of the Munchkins
by Jones Tereka Seasight
Summary: Luigi, Daisy, and Yoshi have vanished completely after a short 'vacation', across the country. This could be a lot of things, but it sure isn't a kidnapping.


0_0 0_0 0_0**~King of the Munchkins~**0_0 0_0 0_0

Who would have thought that the stars could cast so much light down, on such a dark night. Not even stormy, either. Just dark. And cold. And disorienting, though that has nothing to do with the weather. Probably all those police cars...and ambulances.

What in hell is going on here?

Either way, it's not the sort of night that I would like to be out in. I'd prefer to be curled up at home, in my armchair, with a book in my hands, my cat on my lap, and music on the radio. If I wanted to hear about some crime committed (at a _cemetery, _no less!), I'd turn on the news.

Not that crime is really my thing, anyway. I'm a writer, a tech nerd, and a procrastinator, but I'm no investigator. Not like Ret is.

Ret. The _only,_ repeat, _only, _reason that I would _ever _be caught anywhere _near _a murder.

...Or...whatever this is.

He still hasn't told me.

"Ret!" I yell, slowing my pace.

"Ret!"

He whips around, eyes wide. He relaxes when he sees me, but only a little. He runs over to me, calling as he approaches, in that high-pitched, childish voice of his.

"You okay?"

I can't help but shake my head. The only rational thing to worry about here is the cops finding us-humiliating, but not exactly _deadly. _Why would I be anything besides okay? _Besides _the fact that we could get caught on the crime scene, blamed for the murder, tossed into juvie, and get our futures tossed in the trash. Okay, maybe there is a reason to worry. But he's the reason we're out here!

"No, Ret, I'm not. We _really _shouldn't be here right now. Do you know how much _trouble _we'd get in if we're caught?"

Ret stops dead. He closes his eyes, and sits down in the grass. He sighs slowly as he does so.

Not exasperatedly, like I do, but tiredly, genuinely exhausted. Ret never gets tired. Not that I've seen of him, anyhow.

Great. Now _I'm _worried about _him._

I walk over to where he is and sit down next to him.

"Hey..." I swallow nervously-lately, Ret had been...tense. It's difficult to explain, but I can tell. He's now liable to explode at the tiniest things, and I do my best to avoid conflict.

"Are _you_okay?"

Ret looks back at me, and I can't help but recoil slightly. He's not mad-not at what I said, at least. But the look on his face seems almost like he can't decide weather to scream or to cry.

Now I _know_ there's something up. The kid's barely ten years old-he shouldn't have _any _reason to look like that.

His voice scares me even more-it's hollow,and filled, unnaturally so, with self-loathing, even bitterness.

"Oh, I'm fine, Alexis. I'm fine. But they're not."  
>I grab him by the shoulders and turn him to face me-he <em>never <em>calls me Alexis. Lexi, Lex Lexasaurus, but _never_Alexis.

"Who's not! What are you talking about, Ret? You wake me up in the middle of the night, drag me down to the middle of a freaking crime scene, and tell me that someone's been hurt! How do you even know about this!"

I'm absolutely hysterical at this point, near to tears. I'm normally quite composed, but that kid _always_drove my 'mature 'act down into the dirt. Of course, it stands that that kid is my little brother, and there really isn't much to say about that.

Normally, he would comfort me. Not now. Now there's something...different.

"They're missing."

"Who? Mom and Dad?"

Now I'm just babbling, but can you blame me? My ten year old little brother drags me to _fresh crime scene _at a _cemetery_, I'm entitled to a bit of freaking-out.

He shakes his head.

"I'll tell you in a moment. Did you bring the camera?"

I nod. When Ret woke me up, that was the first thing he requested-the camera. Then he demanded that I follow him. Of course I had the camera-I was expecting a prank, not...this.

"Give it to me," Ret says, extending a small hand.

I fumble for a moment, bending over to peer inside the purse the I'd brought. After a moment, I retrieved the camera, and handed it to Ret.

Ret held out a tiny SD card.

I blinked.

"So...what does this have to do with anything?" I ask, trying(and failing) to sound upbeat, despite my morbid surroundings

"I found this when I came down here earlier," Ret says solemnly, gazing down at the chip in his hand.

He sighs, and puts the minuscule SD card into my camcorder.

"Just...listen. And watch."

I bite back several responses that spring to mind, and watch as Ret presses play and the video begins to run.

*_* *_* *_* *_* *_* *_* *_* Begin First Recording*_* *_* *_* *_* *_* *_* *_*

"It-…may…-ere…"

"Yea-…wha-…no…HERE!"

Static crackles are heard, along with small snitches of what appears to be a rather frustrated conversation. Suddenly, colors flash to life on the screen of the battered camera, and the words spoken can be heard clearly.

"Heya everybody!"

Daisy's exited face fills the screen as she cries out excitedly.

"Hey! _Give that back!"_

The camcorders view shakes violently, and its view blurs-the camera has been snatched away from its original owner. When it stops, its focus is still on the fiery Princess of Sarasaland, though from a much farther distance.

The voice that earlier demanded the camera continues, clearly male, and clearly irritated.

"You _really _need to be more _careful _with other people's _stuff!_ I mean, _really?_ This thing was _expensive. Very_ expensive, and I don't want _you_destroying the-"

Daisy cuts in before the camera's newfound owner can finish his sentence.

"Yeah, yeah, that's your _own_ fault for spending thousands of dollars on a super-expensive-elite-SWAT-team-force-of-doom camera! You should've gotten something cheaper! And _excuse me_ for wanting to film a bit. This whole trip was _my _idea, you know!" She huffs and crosses her arms irritably.

The camera swivels around to face backwards, to its owner-Yoshi, looking tired, unenthusiastic, and quite as irritated as his companion.

He sighs dramatically before replying. "Whatever! You made it sound like something y'know, _important,_ and I decided to get a _good _camcorder, rather than some two-bit piece of junk!"

He rolls his eyes, then returns his view to the camera, and continues speaking, but now quietly, and to the camera rather than to Daisy.

"We've been up all night planning this," He says softly, suppressing a yawn. "Freaking Daisy…she seems to think that-"

Said Princess cut him off, for what must have been the millionth time that day-she had a real racket going.

"It _is _important! It's _very _important! And I'll have you know that _you're _part of the reason that we're going!"

Yoshi blinks and shakes his head slowly, and turns the camera back on Daisy before responding.

"How do ya figure _that _out?" He asks blearily.

Daisy scowls, clearly aggravated by his blatant disregard for both the trip and the argument.

"You're the one that _proposed _this whole trip!"

This seems to shock Yoshi into wakefulness-his response comes out clearer and less sleep ridden than any yet.

"Me?"

The brunette smirks a bit, her scowl lightening into a mocking grin.

"Yes, _you._ When I was talking about going here to do a bit of investigating, _you _started at the whole 'no such thing as ghosts' crap," She snorts, making 'air quotes' to Yoshi's belief as an added measure.  
>The dinosaur seems to take offense at this-he responds immediately, without a trace of his former exhaustion.<p>

"Yeah, and Luigi was quaking in his boots! The whole reason for this trip was to freak him out!"

Daisy's eyes widen slightly-Yoshi's last remark hit a nerve.

"It is _not_," She hisses, taking several steps forward, which Yoshi matches in paces back, "To freak him out. It is to make him _stop _freaking out. Geddit?"

Yoshi snorts derisively, pretending not to have heard her. "Whatever. And shouldn't we be, y'know, _explaining why we're here?_"

Daisy brightens up a bit, in both expression and in tone.

"Oh _yeah…_Alrighty then!" She claps her hands bossily and points at the camera. "Start filming now!"

A sigh is heard from behind the view. "It's been filming, you turned it on ages ago."

The brunettes eyes widen at this. "_Oh…_so it's been recording us fighting? Can you delete that?"

The film jerks up and down a bit as Yoshi nods. "Yeah, just keep going."

Daisy nods an affirmative before continuing her initial speech.

"_Hello, Mushroom Kingdom! _We are filming from scenic Eau Claire, Michigan! Or, to be more specific, Brush Lake Road, right outside the entrance to the infamous Munchkinland Cemetery," She paused and grinned evilly before continuing.  
>"Rumored to be one of the most haunted places <em>ever, <em>the place was named for the ages of those in it-More children are buried within these walls than anywhere else, and some of the gravestones date all the way back to the eighteenth century! Pretty unsurprising that it's haunted, right?"

From behind the camera, Yoshi gives a skeptical cough. Daisy spares him an irritated glance, and then resumes her talk.

"And if _that _wasn't enough, a young boy was rumored to have been killed in that chapel, right over there…" She whips around and points off into space-the camera spins off to follow her gaze, then zooms in; and eerie looking, boarded up chapel is seen, graffiti visible on its weathered walls.  
>"…By none other than the pastor who preached there!"<p>

The camera remains in place, focus on the chapel for a moment or two, before turning back to face the exited-looking Princess.

"And this…this cursed, haunted, awful place that…we," She narrowed her eyes dramatically.

"Will be staying the night." She finished softly.

At that very moment, a loud shriek sounds from somewhere in the forest-Daisy jumps slightly, but, from the bored tone of his voice, Yoshi is unsurprised.

"Whaddaya think _that_was?"

Yoshi points towards the forest, in the area that the yell came from; his green hand can be seen at the bottom corner of the screen.

"That."

As if to add to the drama of the scenario, at the precise moment Yoshi spoke, a tall, muddy, figure came hurtling out of the woods screaming as if the hounds of hades were chasing after him. Daisy looks briefly surprised, until the figure trips over a rock and falls face-first into the mud. Daisy calms immediately.

"Oh, hey Luigi. What's up?" She asks nonchalantly, walking over to help him up.

"Nu-nuthin…"

The green plumber struggles to his feet(with a bit of help from Daisy), spitting leaves and attempting to brush some of the mud off of his clothes.  
>A low shriek is heard, loud and low and rough.<p>

Now it's Yoshi's turn to jump.

"Whazzat?" His voice is sharp and panicky.

Daisy smirks, and points to the forest.

"_That,_genius."

The camera swivels about to face the woods-a small bird can be viewed, perched upon the highest branch of a weathered tree. It opens its beak, and the startling 'scream' is heard again.

Yoshi snorts derisively, and re-aims the camera to point back to Daisy and Luigi.

"Hey, it scared your _boyfriend _too, so I wouldn't be talkin'," Yoshi says, already regaining his confidence.

"Trust me, there is _nothing _to be afraid of, or even remotely worried about, in that forest. Nothing. You're winding yourselves up, both of you."

Daisy ignores the insult, and begins walking over to the left; the camera follows her.

"Come on, let's go get the equipment and set it up," She calls over her shoulder."You're going to have your mind changed, whether you like it or _not."_

Yoshi snorts again. The camera's view is jerked around, and he curses under his breath, trying to turn the camera off.

The screen goes blank.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_End of First Recording*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

**A/N-**  
><strong>Alright, I seriously doubt that anyone even read this all the way through, because of the OC intro at the beginning, but what the heck. <strong>

**SO-the point to Ret and Alexis was to have multiple plotlines. Ret and his dear well-meaning-but-kinda-easily-scared sister will be finding the SD cards while weaving about and dodging the coppers, while, **_**in the video, **_**Yoshi, Daisy, and Luigi have their fun with a bit of paranormal investigation. The video scenes are written in present-tense, as if you are watching them, even though the events said have already gone past. The present-time scenes are written mostly from Alexis' point of view. Hopefully that won't get **_**too **_**complicated.**  
><strong>And for anyone wondering-YES, Munchkinland is indeed a real place, look it up yourself, I find it quite interesting. <strong>  
><strong>Also, as you can see, this is my first fanfiction. As such, any and all critique regarding anything in the story is appreciated greatly.<strong>  
><strong>Thank you all very much for reading, and please review if you find the time!<strong>  
><strong>With appreciation,<strong>  
><strong>Jones Tereka Seasight<strong>


End file.
